https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRwj_Vu80m0
X Rebirth had a very bad start, but it seems to be getting better with each major patch. The major news is that the first Linux version has been released.
You have three days to download it for free on Steam, and see if it is worth it.
To get the alpha
Right click on the game, go to properties, select the beta tab, and select linux from the dropdown box.
It’s worth taking a look at the official forum post here, as there is a list of missing features and known issues.
Note: It’s 64bit only, and will stay that way.
It only officially supports the proprietary Nvidia and AMD drivers, and a list of known issues are copied below:
About the game (Official)
In the distant future, the X universe faces a period of profound and irrevocable change. While the universe stumbles towards an uncertain future, countless adventures await as new enemies rise in search of power. Enter a young adventurer and his unlikely female ally traveling in an old, battered ship with a glorious past - two people alone against the galaxy, playing a key part in the events to come. The fate of the universe rests in the hands of the player...
X Rebirth represents a spectacular new beginning for the X series, offering loyal fans and newcomers alike a vast, vivid and extremely detailed universe to explore throughout the game. Varied gameplay elements such as action-packed space combat, detailed trading mechanics and high-speed space exploration with fast travel allow players to experience a truly unique space saga that will keep them hooked for dozens of hours. X Rebirth features a whole new user experience - it is easier than ever to start with, and remains as deep as fans expect it.
My thoughts
It loaded up fine, and was very quick to load. So, I don’t seem to get their logged issue of a black screen for awhile. It’s not often you get a better experience than you were expecting!
In my brief testing the graphics seemed pretty decent, apart from character models looking a bit too plain. Mouths also didn’t seem to match up exactly to what they were saying at first, but it levelled out later on.
Performance wise, it seems pretty solid! Running it on Ultra on the 970 seems to give me over 100FPS while in the cockpit!
There is stuttering when it switches to little cutscenes, but it soon clears up.
When you have an Encyclopaedia entry telling you about something, like docking at the first station, the subtitles don't continue past the first entry. Not a major issue unless you're hard of hearing, so if you are, you may want to skip that part, or wait for the game to be more polished.
The first station gives me between 80-100+ FPS, so it's smooth as silk as well. I didn't even know you could actually walk around areas like this, so it's pretty awesome to see the inside of stations. I was expecting an Eve Online like approach of mainly having a UI to interact with things, and not an FPS mode.
The pitching problems with voices is noticeable, and they are rather quiet. It's on their list of known issues though, so we imagine it will be patched up eventually.
It did eventually crash when alt+tabbed, but stability will be an issue for such an early alpha on Linux.
I'm liking what I see even with the noticeable issues, and think it could be a great game once it is polished up.
Check out X Rebirth on Steam now. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
X Rebirth had a very bad start, but it seems to be getting better with each major patch. The major news is that the first Linux version has been released.
You have three days to download it for free on Steam, and see if it is worth it.
To get the alpha
Right click on the game, go to properties, select the beta tab, and select linux from the dropdown box.
It’s worth taking a look at the official forum post here, as there is a list of missing features and known issues.
Note: It’s 64bit only, and will stay that way.
It only officially supports the proprietary Nvidia and AMD drivers, and a list of known issues are copied below:
QuoteKnown issues and missing features:
Missing joystick/controller support
Mouse wheel doesn't work
Blurry text
Stations/ships being built look finished instantly (it's a graphical issue)
Missing: glow, blur, ssao
No Anti-Aliasing, FXAA makes everything darker
Only high quality non-legacy shaders implemented
Radar objects are white
No muffling for outside sounds
Some audio differences in loudness / pitch / effects
Transparency order issues for ice asteroids on amd-catalyst driver
Performance issues in asteroid fields
Performance issues with station scan mode
Performance issues after alt+tab on amd-catalyst driver
Long game launch time (window/screen may be black during this so please give it a few minutes)
About the game (Official)
In the distant future, the X universe faces a period of profound and irrevocable change. While the universe stumbles towards an uncertain future, countless adventures await as new enemies rise in search of power. Enter a young adventurer and his unlikely female ally traveling in an old, battered ship with a glorious past - two people alone against the galaxy, playing a key part in the events to come. The fate of the universe rests in the hands of the player...
X Rebirth represents a spectacular new beginning for the X series, offering loyal fans and newcomers alike a vast, vivid and extremely detailed universe to explore throughout the game. Varied gameplay elements such as action-packed space combat, detailed trading mechanics and high-speed space exploration with fast travel allow players to experience a truly unique space saga that will keep them hooked for dozens of hours. X Rebirth features a whole new user experience - it is easier than ever to start with, and remains as deep as fans expect it.
My thoughts
It loaded up fine, and was very quick to load. So, I don’t seem to get their logged issue of a black screen for awhile. It’s not often you get a better experience than you were expecting!
In my brief testing the graphics seemed pretty decent, apart from character models looking a bit too plain. Mouths also didn’t seem to match up exactly to what they were saying at first, but it levelled out later on.
Performance wise, it seems pretty solid! Running it on Ultra on the 970 seems to give me over 100FPS while in the cockpit!
There is stuttering when it switches to little cutscenes, but it soon clears up.
When you have an Encyclopaedia entry telling you about something, like docking at the first station, the subtitles don't continue past the first entry. Not a major issue unless you're hard of hearing, so if you are, you may want to skip that part, or wait for the game to be more polished.
The first station gives me between 80-100+ FPS, so it's smooth as silk as well. I didn't even know you could actually walk around areas like this, so it's pretty awesome to see the inside of stations. I was expecting an Eve Online like approach of mainly having a UI to interact with things, and not an FPS mode.
The pitching problems with voices is noticeable, and they are rather quiet. It's on their list of known issues though, so we imagine it will be patched up eventually.
It did eventually crash when alt+tabbed, but stability will be an issue for such an early alpha on Linux.
I'm liking what I see even with the noticeable issues, and think it could be a great game once it is polished up.
Check out X Rebirth on Steam now. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: edqeQuoting: gilboaBTW, how's X:R compared to X3*? The initial reviews were very underwhelming, especially ones that were made by avid X2/X3 followers. Do you play the stock version or did you mod the game?I cannot say which one is better X Rebirth or X3 games because they are quite different. I have been playing X Rebirth much more recently and I'm happy about some design choices they have made; getting rid of SETA for example. Of course there is still problems but I think it is already very good game and excellent base for upcoming X titles.
- Gilboa
For some reason instead of keep playing X3 many "X3 fans" are using their time bashing X Rebirth instead. It was well known that "next X title" was not going to be X4 as the name "X Rebirth" indicates it as well.
X Rebirth had very rocky start because of numerous of technical issues; stability problems, broken campaign, etc. So the question arise why Egosoft published the game in that condition. Although earlier X games has not been in stellar condition on release date either :). Luckily Egosoft has great and long lasting support for their games.
I play X Rebirth without mods and X3 series with mods.
OK. Guess I'll have to find out by myself.
Thanks.
- Gilboa
1 Likes, Who?
I don't know, Egosoft is very good at making overly complicated space sims, and with X:Rebirth they were trying to make a less complex game. It still has all the crappy UI, identical dogfights, and buggy as hell missions, but this time they traded the insane depth for repetitive highway trips, pointless station interiors and a bolted on crafting system. Shit that was broken in earlier game like the autopilot is still broken and combat is even more of a chore than it was before due to the overheating system. I've only logged about 5 hours, and I picked it up for a song, so maybe it gets better, but it definitely isn't a significant improvement over prior titles.
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Quoting: burzmali... but this time they traded the insane depth for repetitive highway trips, pointless station interiors and a bolted on crafting system.What do you think makes "X3" insanely deep compared to X Rebirth?
What X Rebirth is still lacking is better fleet commands etc. but I trust Egosoft will add them eventually. X Rebirth feels to me like X:BtF - a release for a new engine and game mechanisms upcoming X games and based on.
Quoting: burzmaliI've only logged about 5 hours, and I picked it up for a song, so maybe it gets better, but it definitely isn't a significant improvement over prior titles.I personally think it is a big improvement to old titles. They get rid of SETA which was broken by design and without mods X3 is very painful experience. Do you play X3 stock version which has no community mods integrated (by Egosoft) or added by you?
Spaceship interiors is a bit odd and feels like a placeholder for upcoming releases. It is good feature have in the engine and possible to mod out for now.
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Quoting: edqeWhat do you think makes "X3" insanely deep compared to X Rebirth?Well...
Quoting: edqeWhat X Rebirth is still lacking is better fleet commands etc.That'd be the first problem, in earlier X games I managed a fleet, I could command ship X to go to Y and do Z where all 3 of those where rather unlimited and applied equally to my ship and the ships in my fleet. I X:Rebirth my squadron just kind of float behind me. I think some of them got destroyed, but I can't really say, I never got notified, and it's not like any of my ships could keep in formation anyways so they were worthless for combat.
Also, they gave the universe an up, that my ship insists on trying to orient itself against, even in combat. I'm assuming that new players were getting twisted around, but that's a "baby's first space game" feature and I don't think anyone is picking up an X title without having some experience with space sims.
Raising your rep in older games was best done by setting up trade relations with a faction, now you kill unarmed ships sitting in traffic for rep, it's a bit horrifying as to what that implies.
Quoting: edqebut I trust Egosoft will add them eventually. X Rebirth feels to me like X:BtF - a release for a new engine and game mechanisms upcoming X games and based on.It does kind of feel like they threw away a decade worth of improvements.
Quoting: edqeI personally think it is a big improvement to old titles. They get rid of SETA which was broken by design and without mods X3 is very painful experience. Do you play X3 stock version which has no community mods integrated (by Egosoft) or added by you?I never really had a problem with SETA, this new system of highways is probably better, but the highway travel sequences are a big annoyance as the autopilot is still pretty miserable about dealing with navigation in close proximity to other ships. I always used the community mod pack from Egosoft, and I would for X:R as well, but many of the more talented modders don't seem to be interested in X:R so improving the game via mods is progressing slowly.
Quoting: edqeSpaceship interiors is a bit odd and feels like a placeholder for upcoming releases. It is good feature have in the engine and possible to mod out for now.My favorite bit was when I made first contact with a civilization and the first thing I did was crawl through their air ducts and steal all their shit. Then I had a conversation with someone who hadn't heard a peep about the PMC about how the PMC's recent use of Xenon tech was a bad idea. Also, the flat line mini game sucks pretty bad.
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Quoting: burzmaliYou should be able to switch it off in Settings.Quoting: edqeWhat do you think makes "X3" insanely deep compared to X Rebirth?Also, they gave the universe an up, that my ship insists on trying to orient itself against, even in combat. I'm assuming that new players were getting twisted around, but that's a "baby's first space game" feature and I don't think anyone is picking up an X title without having some experience with space sims.
Quoting: burzmaliQuoting: edqebut I trust Egosoft will add them eventually. X Rebirth feels to me like X:BtF - a release for a new engine and game mechanisms upcoming X games and based on.It does kind of feel like they threw away a decade worth of improvements.
Btw. X3 is not dead: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=4502786#4502786
To me X series felt quite stagnant and not going forward anymore. The games are not easy for new players and I'm sure it shows in sales as well. In 90's times were a bit different because gamers had used to play games like that. Nowadays we have very simple games with tons of hand holding. "The Order: 1886" as one of extreme example.
Egosoft is now re-implementing their rendering engine with OpenGL/(Vulkan in future?) which gives me hope that X series is not going to be publish for consoles. I hope X Rebirth and especially X games after that will get more complex and versatile - like Star Citizen. X series is CPU heavy which of course keeps it away from consoles as well.
Quoting: burzmaliI think SETA has always felt cheating and I'm not sure if it has been explained in lore very well. The older X games has been design around SETA and getting rid of that required some big changes to game mechanism too. I understand lots of players like SETA and would like to see coming back.Quoting: edqeI personally think it is a big improvement to old titles. They get rid of SETA which was broken by design and without mods X3 is very painful experience. Do you play X3 stock version which has no community mods integrated (by Egosoft) or added by you?
I never really had a problem with SETA, this new system of highways is probably better, but the highway travel sequences are a big annoyance as the autopilot is still pretty miserable about dealing with navigation in close proximity to other ships.
Quoting: burzmaliI always used the community mod pack from Egosoft, and I would for X:R as well, but many of the more talented modders don't seem to be interested in X:R so improving the game via mods is progressing slowly.It looks like the mod support is not quite there yet but getting better on every new release.
Quoting: burzmaliOuch, mini games. I hope they are placeholders and will be replaced with some more complex (in good way) and deep mechanism.Quoting: edqeSpaceship interiors is a bit odd and feels like a placeholder for upcoming releases. It is good feature have in the engine and possible to mod out for now.My favorite bit was when I made first contact with a civilization and the first thing I did was crawl through their air ducts and steal all their shit. Then I had a conversation with someone who hadn't heard a peep about the PMC about how the PMC's recent use of Xenon tech was a bad idea. Also, the flat line mini game sucks pretty bad.
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Quoting: edqeYou should be able to switch it off in Settings.I didn't notice a switch for that, but I wasn't looking too hard.
Quoting: edqeTo me X series felt quite stagnant and not going forward anymore. The games are not easy for new players and I'm sure it shows in sales as well. In 90's times were a bit different because gamers had used to play games like that. Nowadays we have very simple games with tons of hand holding. "The Order: 1886" as one of extreme example.Egosoft's core fan base is not made up of folks that like simple games, I know that the game was released to retail shelves, but the X brand isn't associated with simple games and X:R isn't particularly simple if only due to the inane UI, [Return]-1-5 to enable long range scan, then [Return]-1-1-1-1 to switch to station scan, because mapping cycling to [ and ] would have been so hard. I mean it takes effort to achieve a UI as needlessly complex as Dwarf Fortress's, but Egosoft pulled it off. Seriously, I have a cockpit loaded with screens and button and all of them do nothing.
Quoting: edqeEgosoft is now re-implementing their rendering engine with OpenGL/(Vulkan in future?) which gives me hope that X series is not going to be publish for consoles. I hope X Rebirth and especially X games after that will get more complex and versatile - like Star Citizen. X series is CPU heavy which of course keeps it away from consoles as well.That X:R was clearly designed for consoles doesn't precisely help its case.
Quoting: edqeI think SETA has always felt cheating and I'm not sure if it has been explained in lore very well. The older X games has been design around SETA and getting rid of that required some big changes to game mechanism too. I understand lots of players like SETA and would like to see coming back.Time acceleration or jump cuts exist in almost all space and flight sims aside from the more hardcore and most arcady titles. X3 had stuff to do in the down time, you could set a course and then manage your fleet, X:R's ship is like a car, if you want to pay attention to anything but the space ahead, you need to take your foot of the gas.
Quoting: edqeOuch, mini games. I hope they are placeholders and will be replaced with some more complex (in good way) and deep mechanism.I doubt it, it has been a year and a half already and if that's still a placeholder, like the first-person station sections, and the crafting section, etc. I feel bad for anyone that paid full price.
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Quoting: burzmaliQuoting: edqeTo me X series felt quite stagnant and not going forward anymore. The games are not easy for new players and I'm sure it shows in sales as well. In 90's times were a bit different because gamers had used to play games like that. Nowadays we have very simple games with tons of hand holding. "The Order: 1886" as one of extreme example.Egosoft's core fan base is not made up of folks that like simple games, I know that the game was released to retail shelves, but the X brand isn't associated with simple games and X:R isn't particularly simple if only due to the inane UI, [Return]-1-5 to enable long range scan, then [Return]-1-1-1-1 to switch to station scan, because mapping cycling to [ and ] would have been so hard.
Yeah, unfortunately the UI is still quite bad. It has always been in X games. Well, once you get to usen them they are relatively quick and painless.
I wonder if there is enoughcore fans to keep Egosoft running despite it's not big company in any mean (~20 people). It wouldn't be huge surprise if ES tries to make X series accessible for wider amount of people.
Quoting: burzmaliThey made their games (X:AP and X Rebirth) playable with gamepads but X Rebirth (maybe even X:TC and X:AP) is way too CPU intensive to be designed for console.Quoting: edqeEgosoft is now re-implementing their rendering engine with OpenGL/(Vulkan in future?) which gives me hope that X series is not going to be publish for consoles. I hope X Rebirth and especially X games after that will get more complex and versatile - like Star Citizen. X series is CPU heavy which of course keeps it away from consoles as well.That X:R was clearly designed for consoles doesn't precisely help its case.
Quoting: burzmaliWell, the ships are way too slow to get anything useful done without SETA. Of course it can be done but would like to see someone actually playing X without SETA :)Quoting: edqeI think SETA has always felt cheating and I'm not sure if it has been explained in lore very well. The older X games has been design around SETA and getting rid of that required some big changes to game mechanism too. I understand lots of players like SETA and would like to see coming back.Time acceleration or jump cuts exist in almost all space and flight sims aside from the more hardcore and most arcady titles. X3 had stuff to do in the down time, you could set a course and then manage your fleet,
Quoting: burzmaliAh, yes for X Rebirth too late but on later titles. It is good to have the support in engine. I hope they find some very good use for it later.Quoting: edqeOuch, mini games. I hope they are placeholders and will be replaced with some more complex (in good way) and deep mechanism.I doubt it, it has been a year and a half already and if that's still a placeholder, like the first-person station sections, and the crafting section, etc. I feel bad for anyone that paid full price.
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Quoting: edqeYeah, unfortunately the UI is still quite bad. It has always been in X games. Well, once you get to usen them they are relatively quick and painless.Can't happen until they get someone to shore up the UI side of things. Almost all the reviews from non-X players hammer X:R hard for its UI.
I wonder if there is enoughcore fans to keep Egosoft running despite it's not big company in any mean (~20 people). It wouldn't be huge surprise if ES tries to make X series accessible for wider amount of people.
Quoting: edqeThey made their games (X:AP and X Rebirth) playable with gamepads but X Rebirth (maybe even X:TC and X:AP) is way too CPU intensive to be designed for console.Yeah ... no, X:R was, at some point in its development, a cross platform title, way too much was built for gamepads instead of KB+M. Auto-rolling, circular menus, crappy KB mapping options, all signs that Egosoft was planning for this to be a gamepad focused release. As far as I know the drugs required to get a company high enough to think a PC only title would best be optimized for gamepads are only legal in Amsterdam.
Quoting: edqeWell, the ships are way too slow to get anything useful done without SETA. Of course it can be done but would like to see someone actually playing X without SETA :)Afterburners and jumpdrives. Only part of X3:TC that really needs SETA after you have those is waiting for big freighter to maneuver their fat asses into position.
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Quoting: burzmaliGamepad support doesn't make game a console game :). I dislike gamepads myself and I use them only on platformers which I play once in year. Support for gamepad in PC games is getting very common; Elite: Dangerous (console game), Star Citizen, Wasteland 2 (console game), Divinity: Original Sin, etc. I would like to see separate UIs for K+M and gamepads but that rarely happens.Quoting: edqeThey made their games (X:AP and X Rebirth) playable with gamepads but X Rebirth (maybe even X:TC and X:AP) is way too CPU intensive to be designed for console.Yeah ... no, X:R was, at some point in its development, a cross platform title, way too much was built for gamepads instead of KB+M. Auto-rolling, circular menus, crappy KB mapping options, all signs that Egosoft was planning for this to be a gamepad focused release. As far as I know the drugs required to get a company high enough to think a PC only title would best be optimized for gamepads are only legal in Amsterdam.
Quoting: burzmaliGetting that far without SETA is an effort alone and after that it is quite mandatory unless you have lots of time. Anyway, I understand lots of gamers wants it back but I personally hope that we will not see it anymore in X games at least core part of game design.Quoting: edqeWell, the ships are way too slow to get anything useful done without SETA. Of course it can be done but would like to see someone actually playing X without SETA :)Afterburners and jumpdrives. Only part of X3:TC that really needs SETA after you have those is waiting for big freighter to maneuver their fat asses into position.
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